The Telegraph: “British citizens might kill or be killed by Turkish troops” in Syria

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Operation Olive Branch – the clue is in the name. It appears, to go by what Turkish President Erdogan has said in the last 24 hours, that a gesture of conciliation – and reconciliation – is being extended towards Syria. And so, the analysis that appeared at FBEL, even as the Turks began their campaign last Friday, was pretty much correct. The invasion of Afrin is happening because of the emerging common cause that the Russians and the Syrians are finding with Turkey. It – the common cause – is the disproportionate and distorted Kurdish empowerment via illegal (let it never be forgotten) American interference (included in those things said by Erdogan was barbed comments about the sustained US meddling in the Middle East). One thing that wasn’t covered – the information wasn’t in our possession at the time – is that the Russians did suggest to the Kurds that surrendering their territory to the national government would deter the Turkish offensive, but presumably the ensuing protection would have been mutually exclusive with the arrangements already in place with the USA. In fact, if the Kurds are led by a lot of CIA-placemen that would weigh the American cause against the lives of innocents, and only choose the former, then the USA is doubly reprehensible, and responsible for the fate that befalls anyone who finds themselves on the wrong end of a bullet in the coming days and weeks in the areas that Turkey wants to clear of what it sees as terrorists. We concluded, did we not, in the last FBEL piece, that it was US provocation – that was arrived at in the most fumbling kind of way – that stoked the Turkish ire?

The US Government has not sounded, in warning against continued Turkish military action, any less mewling since that last report. In fact, it seems to have made a point of saying very little, and very softly for fear of disturbing its domestic audience from Women’s marches, QAnon hypnosis, and government shutdown. There is also a theory doing the rounds that the lack of a clamour out of the State Department, beyond being “concerned”, is because the Turks are actually doing the bidding of the US – more Trump 9-Dimensional chess, anyone? It is the author’s feeling that this sort of idea naturally comes from the illusion, created by years of chest-thumping Hollywood films, that the US military industrial complex is all powerful. The USA is losing in Syria, and badly, and it is all due to its own very real shortcomings. FBEL maintains that the US/Kurd military faculty is not what is being bragged about, and that Syrian Democratic Forces success on the battlefield was chiefly due to the fact that the Americans controlled ISIS too. It was a psyop, which was maintained by the Russian-American deconfliction arrangements – it was a closed system that the Russians were never allowed to rip open to diminish the side-swapping, flag-changing manpower otherwise sustained within.

The winners write the history, and so if the author’s theory is true, and with the Anglo-American Globalists heading for defeat, it should be borne out. More clues are emerging as it is. Consider the following extract from a Telegraph article entitled US-backed Kurdish forces plead with Washington to stop Turkish attack on Afrin:

US-backed Kurdish forces on Monday pleaded with Washington to halt a Turkish offensive against them as it prepared to send reinforcements to the region.

Turkey’s forces have crossed into northern Syrian to assault the Kurdish-held area of Afrin, raising alarm in Western capitals that Turkish troops are attacking the same fighters who helped defeat the Islamic of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

Turkey says it is targeting the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which it considers to be a terrorist group. But YPG fighters also make up the bulk of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the US-backed rebel group who drove Isil out of its capital in Raqqa.

As Turkish forces intensified their attack, the SDF pleaded with their US allies to restrain Turkey. “The coalition is urged to take its responsibilities towards our forces and our people in Afrin,” said Keno Gabriel, an SDF spokesman.

The first thing to note is the continued insistence that the SDF bowled ISIS out at Raqqa. They didn’t. To continue the cricketing metaphor, ISIS declared, and the match was tied – but not after the Americans had bombed the place good and proper – obviously not very effectively either, but then the Americans have always been using ISIS and the SDF as cover to ruin Syrian infrastructure.

Secondly, note that the YPG is having to draw reinforcements out of eastern Syria – significant, perhaps, because it suggests that even in defensive positions (which could mean being able to get away with having smaller numbers in the ranks), they don’t have the manpower to see off the Turkish offensive. It’s clear that this is true because of the desperate note in the request to the USA. Yes, “plead” is the journalist’s word, but Keno Gabriel, is quoting responsibilities that the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) have already absolved themselves of. Incidentally, it appears from certain reports that Syrian Government forces are allowing the YPG to move through their areas – and, from a strategic point of view, it would be rather remiss of them if they did deny the Kurds the opportunity to empty out areas east of the Euphrates to suffer attrition through combat where the Turk had decided to fight (don’t forget, the SDF is not necessarily staffed by Syrians, despite what corporate-media might say). But then, the author understands that the Afrin canton is the place in Syria with the highest number of Kurds inhabiting it – and so it is crucial in terms of the prospective state of Rojava having a feasible population. It’s a trap that the YPG must walk into, and there is no help from the American friends who just don’t seem to be that interested in realising Kurdish frills on the Pentagon plan.

Whether or not Operation Olive Branch escalates so that the 2000 Americans in east Syria have to get involved – or escape in helicopters a la Saigon – not only depends on the operation’s scope, but also if cross border clashes turn into fully blown incursions. Fighting seems to be being reported variously all along the Turkish/Syrian border; this extract tells of one example:

Separately, a Turkish soldier was slightly injured in the border district of Ceylanpınar of the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa after being hit by the YPG’s harassing fire opened from al-Hasakah, a district which the Syrian Kurdish militia has control over… the Turkish troops deployed in the border region retaliated and hit YPG targets in al-Hasakah’s Rasulayn district.

As for the intended scope, consider what Erdogan has to say as he addressed an award ceremony, 22nd January, Ankara (BAFTA, take note):

It is very clear that we do not have any problem with our Kurdish citizens; it is also not a matter of a Kurdish corridor… The main purpose of this operation is to contribute to the safety of life and property of Syrian people as well as the territorial integrity of Syria along with Turkey’s national security.

Apparently, Erdogan also said that there were no plans to interminably occupy “the territories of another country”. Here, then, is where we glean an impression of that Olive Branch for Syria. Obviously, Erdogan would be interested in selling the Turkish operation in a favourable light to those with whom he would gain an advantage (i.e. Russia), but the aspect of this speech that perhaps indicates genuine intention for a working relationship with Damascus is the reference to the territorial integrity of Syria. Note, that when Erdogan talks about restoration of safety to the Syrian people, and also, in fact, about securing territorial integrity, he must be understood on two levels. Firstly, in Afrin, where the Turks are actually currently executing their operation, the Kurds are Syrians. The land is Syrian too – not Kurdish, not according to Erdogan. It’s an important little detail for this reason: as “Syria” is used to describe Afrin, then it follows that Erdogan would see the other Kurdish-held lands in the same way. The second level of his discourse could be taken as a setting out of the range of Turkish ambitions. It can’t be denied; returning the US-backed Kurdistan to the Syrian Government would certainly solve the Turkish national security issues. Does this mean that the Turkish will attack the YPG in al-Hasakah or Raqqa governates (east Syria)?

The word “concerned” has been used to describe the quiet US reaction to Operation Olive Branch. There’s no reason to understand that those feelings – and others related to fear, frustration and being thwarted – aren’t genuinely being experienced, especially as a little corner of that Telegraph article quoted above betrays knowledge that events are threatening to cut too close to the bone:

There are a number of British and other Western volunteers fighting with Kurdish forces in northern Syria, raising the prospect that Western citizens might kill Turkish troops or be killed by them.

The involvement of Western citizens in the fighting against Turkish forces would likely add more strain to the already-fraught relationship between Turkey and the rest of Nato.

This is an astonishing piece of writing. While there may well be individual mercenaries from the UK in Syria, generally, for “volunteers” the author reads Special Forces. If it ever happens, is the British Government really going to tell the public that “British citizens” were killed by the Turks in Operation Olive Branch? To be frank, the British Government wouldn’t tell the public of a death in the first instance – but then, it can’t control information like it did in the old days. That is why this piece of writing looks like preparation; it looks like setting up for plausible deniability. They must be concerned.

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